


Anywhere But Here.

by Beckon



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Gen, Minor Angst, Post-Bus!AU, Team Bonding, Team Castellanos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-19
Updated: 2015-02-08
Packaged: 2018-03-08 05:40:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3197435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beckon/pseuds/Beckon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were going to be bleeding out and defenseless against anything that might find them- and he was stuck here where nothing could get him. He was safe and... they were as good as dead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

He closed his eyes at the sight of the hotel wall closing in on them.

He heard the sickening crunch of metal crushing in on itself and the sound of brick and plaster being ripped apart as the bus actually broke clean through the outer wall. The force rocketed throughout his body, shaking and vibrating inside of his bones as the bus continued forward with its momentum.

And opened his eyes to the sight of a bare ceiling.

A sharp gasp escaped him as he pushed himself up all too quickly.

He could still feel his bones rattling from the force of hitting the outer hotel wall and it felt like the entirety of his stomach was in his chest as he struggled to breath for a few seconds. The adrenaline was still going and he quickly looked around at his surroundings, expecting to see the chaotic remains of the bus and hotel walls scattered around him. But just one look around told him where he was... and it was the last place he wanted to be.

Pushing himself to his feet, he nearly collapsed at the weakness of his own legs and felt a convincing wave of nausea wash over him. It felt like his entire body was a mess and the race between his heart and his thoughts was not helping him in the slightest. Using the worn down desk to recollect his balance, he pushed himself across the small hospice room and stumbled out into the hallway- hastily looking around for anyone else. From experience, he already knew every room in this hallway was either locked or empty, so there seemed to be no point in checking, but he did anyways.

Just on the off-chance that something different had happened and the three of them were all here instead... but nothing had changed. The doors that did open showed nothing but an empty room that had been abandoned for weeks, maybe even years. And the doors that remained locked showed the same thing through their barred openings.

He stepped into the lobby next and felt that growing panic begin to force its way into his chest as he looked around at the empty room. He didn't know what he was expecting, it wasn't like anyone else ever came here but him.

"Detective, what seems to be the matter?"

The voice startled him for no reason.

He turned around at the question and watched as the dark-haired woman came walking down the hallway towards him. She seemed to be in no hurry despite the absolute mess he felt like he was in- and she certainly hadn't been down there just seconds ago when he was checking the rooms. Then again, he had stopped questioning her antics a long time ago.

"Where are they?" Sebastian started, his voice sounding rough when it came out of him. He was still out of breath and the adrenaline kept his heart rate from coming down, so it felt like he was still on that damn bus as opposed to this place. The brief, metallic taste in the back of his mouth hinted at blood, but it was hardly worth his attention right now.

Tatiana lightly frowned, but gave no other facial response.

Instead, she continued walking towards him and paused only after she had stepped into the lobby herself. She brushed her hands against the skirt of her uniform and tugged on the collar of her small jacket, before she looked back to him. "Where are who?" she replied. "You are the only soul here right now."

And it felt like his stomach dropped at the words.

She had said that nearly every time he was here, as though to remind him of the isolation, and she wasn't wrong.

Asides from her, he had always been here alone. So, that meant...

"No, no, I can't..." he started, hearing himself stammering briefly as the panic began to set in. "I was just with them- they need me."

Tatiana gave only a brief, semi-sympathetic shrug. "I'm sorry Detective, but... there is no one else here. I don't know who you are looking for."

He looked around at the empty lobby once more- knowing already that she was right. She always was.

And suddenly, the overwhelming panic felt like it was slowly turning into anger as he was forced to come to terms with the situation.

"Then I have to get out of here." He sharply spoke, as he turned and headed into the short corridor behind him first. The hanging mirror that overlooked the dirty sink was almost black and refused to reflect anything, already telling him that it wasn't the escape he needed. There were multiple exits scattered around this place and he went to each one, one after the other, only to realize they were all closed off.

He was trapped in this place until something happened and triggered a way out. Something, some kind of essence or being, was purposely keeping him here and it was going to make him wait until it was ready to let him go. And it didn't care that it was urgent for him to exit this place immediately.

He didn't have time to sit around for some kind of trigger.

Not when they needed him...

"Detective."

He didn't even hear her calling after him as he stepped into the back room behind her desk.

Their fucking bus was in the middle of being sent through a hotel and he was stuck here, wherever this place was. As many times as he had been here, he still wasn't entirely sure what it was- but he did know that, to some extent, it was some kind of safe haven.

And while he was safe here, his partners were still out there, in the other world, in danger... and there wasn't a damn thing he could do to help them.

And he hated feeling so damn useless.

"Detective."

Joseph just got fucking shot and he wasn't there to help him.

There was no way he was going to survive that bus crash and walk away in decent health. The bullet alone had kept him struggling to keep conscious and he had been trying to do what he could to keep his partner awake. In any other situation, this would've been a non-life threatening shot that maybe would've required a week in the hospital and then a week or so of bed rest. But they weren't exactly in the correct world for that; the possibility of him bleeding to death here was too great.

And Kidman... she was sitting at the front of the bus.

He would be surprised if she hadn't gotten knocked out going through that first wall. If she did manage to avoid that though, then she would have to jump out of the driver's seat or at least try to move out of the way before something else happened... otherwise the odds of surviving were against her. She was smart though and still in good health, there was still a strong possibility that she had lived.

They needed him... And he wasn't going to be there.

They were going to be bleeding out and defenseless against anything that might find them- and he was stuck here where nothing could get him. He was safe and... they were as good as dead.

And he would gladly trade his life for both of theirs.

"Detective Castellanos!"

Her sharp voice finally registered to him this time and, once more, it startled him. He had slowly been succumbing to his own panic and worry that he had completely forgotten about the woman. She snapped him back into this hospice world and he, again, became very aware of the silence and creeping isolation. He turned back around to her, catching himself in a breathless state once more.

"What?" he snapped briefly, as the frustration and bitterness about being stuck here caught up to him again. He didn't always have the best controlled temper, and he was never entirely happy with losing it from time to time, but he had other places to be right now; and she could be the one who was keeping him here for all he knew.

Tatiana didn't seem the least bit phased by his temper; she always looked as though she had dealt with much worse things anyways. "You're making a mess."

The remark caught him by surprise. After all, it wasn't like he was going around the entire place throwing chairs, or breaking windows, and clearing off tables. He wasn't on some kind of psycho, rampaging binge... he had hardly touched anything in this place. "What are you talking about?" Sebastian started.

She didn't answer and instead looked down at the floor.

And it was only when he looked down with her did he realize what she meant.

There were thick, splattered droplets of blood on the dirty, tiled floor and they had formed a trail going from room to room, which meant...

He stilled at the realization before he briefly looked himself over- just now realizing the blood dripping from open gashes that had torn his forearms open. In his worrying over Joseph and Kidman, he had forgotten that he too had been involved with that crash and... that he certainly didn't walk away in perfect health.

The barely-healing injuries on his hands had been ripped back open and his palms had been scuffed raw from trying to catch himself during the crash; there were still pieces of broken plaster stuck under his skin. His collar was damp with blood and the red stains dripping down the front of his shirt said something must've cut the side of his neck open. And the dull sense of pain from the back of his left shoulder told him something was wrong there too.

He had been aware of the injuries he had picked up during the ambulance situation, which meant anything new had occurred solely from the crash...

And, like someone turning on a light switch, he felt the adrenaline wear off enough for him to become vaguely aware of the pain shooting across his body. There was no telling what kinds of internal damages had been done, or how many bones might've been broken- although he could already feel a few of his ribs starting to throb.

"You should really look at a mirror." Tatiana offered. "There are some medical supplies in the cabinet, will you need assistance?"

He hesitated briefly, still a little caught up in the realization. "No, I... I'll be fine."

She gave a brief nod and turned to leave.

He remained where he was for a few seconds, before he slowly touched at the wounded side of his neck- wincing when he found the open gash that was bleeding out. These injuries were minor at best despite the amount of blood coming out of them- although that wasn't to say the blood loss could be ignored either. He hated to admit that this world would get to win this one time, but... if he was going to be stuck here for the time being, then he might as well take care of his injuries. After all, he'd be no good to anyone in this shitty state.

Maybe this fucking place would let him leave after he patched himself up.

Sighing, he headed back across the room and pushed through the second door- not even realizing that it wasn't locked as it usually was. The original mirror was reflective again, instead of being solid black, but it still wasn't cracked like he needed it to be in order to exit this place. Which was just perfect. He gave a brief look at himself in the mirror and winced when he noticed the blood spilling out of his split temple; he must've hit his head on something because the skin was split clean from his temple down to his eye. There were a few shallow scratches on his jaw from the Haunted he encountered around the ambulance, as well as a wide cut that ripped his lower lip open.

He didn't look bad for someone who just survived a hell-bound highway and an aerial bus crash.

He used the sink just long enough to clean the blood that had spilled down his face, and briefly cleaned the blood off of his hands and arms, before he walked back into the back office. He practically had to force himself to slip off his holster as he headed into the corner room and placed it down on the long table; his shotgun was slowly removed next and placed down as well. It was nice not to have the extra weight to carry, but it left him feeling vulnerable and unprepared without it. But he knew this place was safe enough to walk around unarmed- plus it'd be easier to patch himself up without them getting in the way. Giving out another sigh, he pushed his fingers through his hair as he walked back out into the main room and headed over to the strangely clean cabinet pushed against the wall.

A brief browse through the available medical supplies found each bottle and such neatly arranged on each shelf. There wasn't anything too serious, it looked like it was just basic supplies for minor injuries. And hopefully, that was all he had.

"Take a seat, Detective." Tatiana spoke, almost too closely behind him as her fingers barely brushed against his back. "I will take care of this."

It felt like he had no choice seeing as she simply pushed past him and began to sort her way through the cabinet. And he had this feeling that he shouldn't try to interrupt her- she certainly had more knowledge about this kind of stuff anyways. He gave a brief shrug and walked back into the other room, where he sat down in one of the free chairs. He could hear several bones crackling with the motion and tried to ignore the brief swell of pain that came from his lower back.

It was probably nothing serious.

Sighing, he briefly touched over the obvious bloody marks that had torn through his arms, at least glad to see that they weren't bleeding for the time being. And he knew damn well that they only reminded him that he had barely managed to escape the first wave of bullets from that chain gunner. The bullets had been hot when they grazed his arms and he was lucky they didn't tear through his body instead- he wouldn't have lasted five minutes out there.

But the thought only reminded him of why he had gone against the mounted gun in the first place...

He had managed to put a decent enough bandage on Joseph's wound, but... it wouldn't be enough to protect his injury from the wreck. More than likely, the violent movement from the wreck would only cause additional tearing to the bullet wound. His partner would be bleeding out again and he wasn't there to stop it this time. It was possible that Kidman could, but that was going off the assumption that she hadn't been knocked unconscious in the initial crash- and that they hadn't been separated afterwards.

"You look worried." Tatiana started as she sat down next to him, setting aside a small tray of the medical supplies she had finally collected.

He didn't reply and instead watched as she twisted the cap off of an unlabeled bottle and carefully soaked a few cotton balls with the liquid inside, before she went about cleaning his skinned knuckles. The liquid momentarily burned on contact, but the slight pain that came with it wasn't something new to him- he had gotten well used to it by now. She worked tediously with each knuckle, making sure to pay close attention to where he had caught some of them on the barbed wire that had been wrapped around a Haunted's face.

"I'm certain the people you are looking for are alright."

He couldn't bring himself to take her words as comfort.

What would she know anyways? She never left this place as far as he knew. He didn't even know how she existed here- or really what this area was in the first place. It was separated from the rest of this world and yet... still existed in the same universe somehow. Asides from a few, rare times, it was mostly untouched by anything this world could create.

But... as much as he wanted to believe that his partners were okay... the odds were stacked against them- especially in a hellhole like this.

And he wasn't stupid enough to try and overlook that; he wasn't going to pretend that everything could turn out alright.

"You must've been in quite the accident." she continued, as she moved to clean his bloodied forearm next. She worked tediously on each wound and moved on only when she had thoroughly cleaned each one of blood and grime. She would throw away the blood-soaked cotton balls between every other wound, and replace them with a new pair- which she would re-soak before she continued.

The open cuts and gashes on his arm were a little more sensitive and burned more than the ones on his knuckles, but, again, he could overlook it. He survived the first couple of walls, but the lack of a proper roof on the bus had left him fairly vulnerable to flying debris and shrapnel. His injuries could've been a lot worse though, so he was counting himself lucky with these.

"These must be painful."

"They're not the worst." Sebastian replied, although not entirely sure why he bothered to. It wasn't like he ever had much of a conversation with her before... she was hardly the type to hold one; she usually just said a few words and then went to minding her own business. Then again, maybe he was the one who never stuck around long enough to talk. It seemed like every time he was teleported here, by some outside force, he'd immediately try to leave as soon as he could.

Tatiana hummed softly and nodded as she gently pushed his torn sleeve out of the way to clean the last of the injuries on his forearm. It was looking better, especially when compared to the uncleaned injuries on his other arm. With the dirt and plaster cleaned away though, the incoming bruises and swellings were exposed. It looked better, but still... it certainly wasn't pretty.

He watched as she leaned closer for a moment, before she gently went about cleaning the open split of his temple; the quick burn of the medicine actually made him flinch for a second.

"You're quiet."

She was one to talk.

Sebastian sighed as he leaned away from her and lightly brushed her off. While he didn't want to seem rude... he was not up for company right now. And while she was doing him a favor by cleaning his injuries for him, he'd much rather do it himself or leave them as they were. "The bus I was on before this was sent through a hotel, so I'm not exactly in a talking mood."

Tatiana nodded once more and moved back in to her chair. Setting the supplies aside, she seemed to pause before she reached forward and gently rested her hand on top of his. There was nothing more to the motion other than a seemingly empty grasp at a comforting gesture. The woman was usually distant and unmoving, making this seem like the closest human contact she had had in some time. "It's understandable."

It sounded genuinely comforting.

The gesture held for only a few seconds before she pushed herself to her feet and moved her hand to his shoulder instead. "I have work to get done, Detective, will you be alright?"

"I have been so far." he answered, watching as she nodded before she quietly departed.

"You know where to find me if you change your mind."

Leaning back in the chair, he tried to ease the stiffness in his back and shift the pressure off of his hips. The adrenaline rush had left completely at this point, leaving him with his thoughts and obvious pains from the wreckage. He had been in a couple of car wrecks throughout his life- most of them were when he was on the job, so he was fairly familiar with the common pain that followed one. Of course, this had been a bus going through a hotel, which was an entirely different scenario, but... it had the same kind of issues with it- just on a greater scale.

Which meant everything would probably start feeling worse in the next hour or so.

He looked to the uncleaned injuries that remained on his other arm and figured he might as well keep with it; it would help pass the time and keep him distracted. Picking up where Tatiana had left off, he started at his knuckles once more and gradually moved his way up his forearm. A greater portion of his outer forearm was almost skinned, which made him think that he must've landed on his left arm when he let go of the bus; the open gashes on his arm were also stressed and showed minor tearing, which only seemed to further that idea. The bleeding was harder to control as well, making it difficult for him to clean the open wounds.

He didn't even notice his arm had been dripping blood onto the floor until he stood up to look for a bandage to cover it with.

Thick red droplets were splattered carelessly next to him.

It really wouldn't have been worth noticing until he stepped around the table and noticed what looked like bloody drag marks slowly leaving the room; the blood looked as though it was bubbling up through the tile like the floor itself was bleeding- and it was moving on its own accord. He had seen something like it before back in the asylum. It was some kind of puzzle that consisted of there being three separate rooms, each with a body bag, the choice between two medallions and the drawings from a madman on the walls. And every time he picked the correct medallion, the body bags would be impaled and spill blood onto the floor- and then... something would drag the blood into the next room.

The crimson trails eventually lead to a blood-stained door that took him further into the heart of the asylum...

So where would this one go?

For a moment, he hesitated. The last thing he wanted to do right now was get wrapped up in another one of Ruvik's puzzles...

But if this gave him a way out...

He slowly followed behind the moving trail, watching as it curved throughout the office area before it slipped under the door at the end of the room. His heart was already starting to pound away in his chest as he pushed the door open and quietly stepped back into the lobby. And it was only then did he realize he had carelessly left both of his weapons behind on the table.

So if this trail ended up taking him into some sort of trap, he would be fucked.

But the blood trail continued to slither around the front desk until it disappeared down the hallway with the hospice rooms.

Tatiana didn't seem the least bit bothered by it; it was almost as though she didn't notice it as she quietly continued to file her nails. She only looked up when he barely walked behind her, still not entirely settled with following the trail to its end. It could lead to a way out, or it could lead to a trap; this place seemed safe, sure, but he wasn't entirely convinced that Ruvik simply couldn't enter this place. That psychopath created this world and altered it to his liking, he highly doubted this place had been tucked away without his knowledge.

"Is something the matter, Detective?"

He didn't answer and instead watched as the trail began to fade and disappear down the corridor.

He started to follow once more, but stopped at the sound of one of room doors being forced open. With the uncomfortable silence in this place, it was incredibly loud, which made it hard to confuse it with something else. But... he had checked all of the rooms beforehand and the ones that weren't locked were empty, and he had left all of the unlocked doors open.

Which meant only a locked door could've made that noise.

... So who the hell was on the other side of that door?

"Great... I'm back to this fucking place."

The well-angered voice caught his attention and he stilled as he heard what sounded like the clicking of heels walking across the tiled floor. And it didn't take long before he had the answer of who it was.

Kidman stepped into the lobby looking... well, like a miracle really.


	2. Chapter 2

His first thought was of surprise to see her here.

There were never any signs that anyone else had been here- let alone, that anyone else could even get to this place. He figured, by this point, with as many times as he had been forced here, he would've at least ran into one of his partners.

At most, he had seen Leslie a few times, but even then those encounters had seemed more like distorted illusions.

If anything though... it told him she had survived the crash- and that was the best news he could've gotten right now.

But a second look at her told him to caution himself.

Her usually stoic expression was traded out for one of both anger and pain- more than likely, with one being linked to the other.

A steady stream of blood came down from somewhere under her messy hair and, at this point, had covered almost half of her face. The red trail had dripped over her jaw and down her neck, making a mess of her white blouse, which was already sporting several more bloody stains. Her arms were literally covered in blood, which caused thick droplets to roll off of her shaking fingertips- making it difficult to pinpoint what kind of injuries she had exactly. She noticeably cradled the ribs on her left side and walked with a slight, but apparent limp- which the dark stain on the front of her right thigh might've had something to do with it.

She looked like shit and he was pretty certain she felt the same as well.

Probably even worse.

"Fuck. Me." Her voice shook when she spoke, but the strained tone gave away to her anger. She gave an irritated groan as she stopped just long enough to lean against the doorframe for balance; her right leg visibly shook and looked as though it threatened to give out from underneath her.

She was incredibly pissed off- and she had every right to be.

But, more importantly, she was alive and she was here now.

"Kidman." Sebastian started, not entirely sure if he had even managed to force her name out.

But she looked up in the midst of wiping away the blood that was spilling out from her nose- and she looked every bit as confused as to who the hell could've called her name here.

She physically stilled when she turned and caught his eye; the hand she was using for balance on the door frame immediately tightened and, for a moment, it looked like the aged wood might splinter in her grip. But it was the partial, broken gasp that escaped her that really said everything he needed to hear.

"Sebastian... oh, thank God." she breathed in audible relief, as she pushed herself from the door frame and started towards him.

He stepped around the desk to get to her, mostly to help cut her travel in half, but instead of modestly helping her with her balance... he ended up pulling her to him the first chance he got. And she practically collapsed against him in return. She kept one arm protectively over her ribs, but wrapped the other arm around his back, burying her fingers into his vest.

In that single moment, he was just relieved to see her- he didn't think about the action at all, but it didn't seem like she cared either way.

Because, for now, they were both alive- and at least they had that knowledge to comfort them.

"He threw us though a fucking hotel." she spat into his chest; her fingers digging into his back now.

She had saved both him and Joseph from the Heresy.

She was the one who spotted the ambulance and had practically been halfway out the bus before he stopped her.

And she had managed to get the two of them away from the wrecked overpass before things went from bad to worse... She had almost gotten them out of there before Ruvik showed up. He could see why she would be so angry.

She had helped them avoid death again and again and again, only to be rendered helpless at the very last minute.

And judging from her reaction when she saw him, she must've thought he was dead and that all of her work would've been for nothing.

"You're alive, that's all I care about right now." He replied, before he carefully pulled away and held her at arm's length. Up close like this, he could see a few more scattered injuries, probably from the flying debris or... from what might've been the windshield shattering; he winced at the ugly shades of bruising that were settling in against her pale skin. "You're in bad shape."

"You're not any better." Kidman remarked, as she tried to wipe away the blood that was now spilling over her eye- to little avail though. It must've been a hell of a head wound if it was bleeding as steadily as it was. She gave a short look around the place, but based on her lack of surprise, he had a feeling this wasn't the first time she had been here. She had even mentioned something like 'she was back here again' earlier, so... perhaps this room was open to anyone who could find it. When she looked back to him though, there was a sense of concern in her eyes. "... Where's Joseph?"

He could already feel that sense of worry and panic slowly building its way back up again- and of course it would happen soon after he had managed to calm it down. It felt like with every step forward being made, there was always something there to drag him back.

He had just gotten Kidman back... but was it at the risk of losing Joseph?

"I... is he not with you?" Sebastian asked, fumbling briefly with the question.

And, just like that, the panic seemed to hit her just the same.

If it was at all possible, the remaining look of color drained from her face. "No... I... I thought he was with you." She started. "I mean, I thought you were both dead too, but if you're here..."

If Joseph was still at the crash scene...

He tried not to let himself be consumed by the thought- at least not again.

"Let's not jump to the worst-case here." He replied, although knowing damn well the thought was already circulating again in the back of his head. His main focus right now needed to be her- especially since they were both trapped here now. There was literally nothing they could do about the situation, there was no way they could help Joseph from here, so... the best they could do was keep each other calm. "... If you can be here, then there's a possibility that so can he."

And maybe it was all wishful thinking, but it wasn't out of the running yet.

It was a possibility that he was going to cling to until he was proven wrong.

Her only response was silence for the time being, but he had this odd feeling that she was studying him or maybe studying what he had said. She was a difficult person to figure out and right now, she seemed to be banking on that difficulty. Or maybe she just didn't believe a damn thing he was saying- and he couldn't blame her for that. He was grasping at whatever he could to keep the both of them level-headed and calm, but that kind of stuff wasn't exactly in his department.

"... We're stuck here, aren't we?"

Part of him wasn't the least bit surprised she was able to guess that as quickly as she did. If she had been here previously before, than she knew how this world worked and... she could probably just feel the difference in the air.

It was confining and cold now.

He only nodded in return and watched as her expression fell in response. An exasperated sigh escaped her as she briefly dropped her head forward and rested it against his shoulder. She was exhausted enough after everything that had happened... even if she could leave this place, it wasn't like she would last long out there. Neither of them would. And they would be of no help in this condition.

It was a hard pill to swallow, but... they could do nothing but come to terms with it.

For now, at least, she could share in his frustration.

"You're in bad shape, Detective Kidman." Tatiana remarked out of nowhere, unfortunately startling the both of them.

How was it that he was continuously forgetting about her?

He watched as Kidman pulled herself up and looked over at the woman, not appearing to be the least bit surprised by the nurse's appearance. If anything, she seemed briefly annoyed by Tatiana's unflattering remark.

"You should get looked at." the nurse continued, provoking Kidman to glance down briefly at the mess of blood that was dripping to the floor around her. Her arms had yet to stop bleeding and were messily splattering blood every time she moved them in the slightest.

"There's some medical supplies in the back." He offered. "... And you really need them."

She shot an annoyed look towards him as well and frowned briefly, but could do little else but nod in agreement. It wasn't like they were lying to her. Sighing, Kidman touched at the arm she was using to cradle her ribs and winced in reaction, before she moved to cover it. "I know, just uh... let me try to wash this blood off of me first. It's all over the place and there's no telling where to even begin."

"Do you need-"

"It's quite alright, Detective; I can be of assistance." Tatiana assured, interrupting him in the process, as she quietly pushed herself to her feet- setting her nail filer aside. She walked around the desk and waited patiently for them to separate.

"I'll be fine." Kidman replied, with what might've been a brief nod of reassurance. "You uh... you take care of yourself first; you'll be of no use to me dead."

Like she had any place to talk.

He stepped back and let Tatiana take Kidman by the arm before she helped her across the lobby and into the joining corridor; the nurse walked carefully to adjust to Kidman's limped gait. He started to head back into the back room, but paused just long enough to look back into the longer hallway. The door to her room was left open, just like his still was... And despite the urge to go check those rooms over again, he knew they would still be locked or empty. Nothing was going to change from here... He would just have to follow the rules for now and play by them until this world released him.

Stepping into the back room once more, he made sure to grab a few bandages from the cabinet and quickly taped one onto his still skinned forearm- after cleaning it one more time for good measure. He wasn't exactly worried about the open gashes on his arms for the time being; they weren't too serious and it would only be a waste of bandages to cover them.

They had a limited supply of medical goods, so they needed to be careful with them.

And he'd much rather them go to someone else.

It felt like minutes had gone by before he heard the sound of a door opening and heard her heels clicking as she headed back to join him; their usual rhythm was off-setted by her wounded limp. When she finally stepped into view, she thankfully had most of the blood cleaned up and had a thin towel pressed against her left arm. He assumed Tatiana must've given it to her.

"Nice setup." Kidman remarked as she slowly walked around the table, hardly even looking at her surroundings. She used her foot to ease out the chair to his left before she carefully sat herself down. A somewhat muffled groan left her at the motion and she shifted forward to ease the weight off of her back.

"You'll have to talk to that nurse up front about it." He replied.

"I don't think I will."

He chuckled briefly at her less than modest answer. "Come on, let me see if I can do anything about that arm." Sebastian offered, watching as she roughly moved to place her right arm down on the table. Most of the blood had been washed away and the injuries, thankfully, had yet to start bleeding all over again- which would hopefully mean he could at least get them cleaned before they did.

Her arms were torn apart.

The entire length of her forearm, including her palm, had massive scraps that practically skinned her arm open. She had a few patches of skin missing on her palm, wrist, elbow and on the side of her arm where she had probably first hit the ground. It wasn't nearly as severe as he had thought, with the blood and all, but it was still a pretty damning injury.

And all of the exposed nerves didn't help when it came to cleaning each inch of torn skin.

He caught her physically flinching each time he had to clean one of the skinned off portions.

"I uh... I jumped." she started, as she watched him carefully try to clean the last of the open gashes on her elbow. "I missed the fire escape I was aiming for and when I hit the street, I rolled pretty hard."

He had seen injuries similar to these in some motorcycle crashes or when someone was thrown from the car in a wreck. They were always cringeworthy injuries- because when human skin hit asphalt going who knows how fast... there was no telling what was going to be left in the aftermath. But he had never seen any to this extent. Then again, jumping out a hell-bound bus from a third or fourth story level would do that.

"You're lucky you can still move." Sebastian replied.

"Believe me, I know." Kidman nodded, wincing once more as he moved to take care of the bloody, busted portions of her fingers. There were a few, small chucks of skin and tissue missing from her knuckles- although most of them had been skinned when she inadvertently rolled on them in an attempt to protect her chest. "I'm lucky I don't have bones sticking out of me."

"At least none you can feel now."

She managed a brief, weak chuckle at his remark, although noted that it briefly hurt to do so. "Please don't say that. I'm actually scared of what I can't feel right now."

He stopped in the middle of cleaning the wounds on her shaking hand when he noticed the blood on the table, and knew it was coming from where her arm had started to bleed out again. At the very least, her injuries had held out longer than he thought. He covered the more painful injuries with a few medical pads before he ended up wrapping the entirety of her forearm in gauze. She briefly complained that it was a waste of supplies, but he argued that it was well worth the cost.

"So, tell me, how'd you guess that we were stuck here?" he asked, as he finished touching up her busted fingers as best he could.

She examined his work when he was done- although she had to admit that she was just mostly glad to see the injuries wrapped up out of sight. The gauze mildly irritated her bruised and tortured skin, but she could look over it with no problem. As long as she wasn't a bleeding mess anymore and didn't have to see her skin all grounded up and peeling off. Pulling her chair around, she had to sit facing him so he could start cleaning up her left arm- which he had to pull the blood-soaked towel off of first; her skin briefly stuck to the material and she tried not to flinch as noticeably during the slow process.

Her left arm was worse- if that was at all possible.

"Because you would've been out of this place and looking for us by now."

Sebastian paused briefly at the remark before he continued to work on her arm, slowly working his way from her palm down once more. "And instead, we're both stuck here... and we have no clue what's going on out there. We're safe, sure, which is probably for the best considering neither of us are in the greatest conditions, but..." he let his voice trail.

"I know." she assured with a light nod, before she slowly moved to rest her hand on his shoulder- giving it a brief squeeze. "It'll be okay."

It was odd how comforting she was, but... somehow it didn't seem straight out of character for her. In some way, she was probably just as worried as he was- because they were both well aware of how this world worked.

It didn't exactly show mercy or pity.

"... So, how uh... is your shoulder?"

The question sounded forced and almost awkward for her and he didn't necessarily understand why until he saw the tense look on her face.

And, somehow, the pieces came together after that.

"Fine." Sebastian answered, as he continued to work down her forearm. "I had actually forgotten about it until now."

He swore he heard her mutter a brief 'shit' under her voice as she let her hand drop away from his shoulder.

"Listen, I-"

"You don't have to say anything." He interrupted, already knowing well where this conversation was going to go... and right now, he didn't want to discuss it. "You have no reason to apologize."

Kidman frowned again. "I shot you, that's not exactly something I can walk away from with my hands clean."

"You shot in self-defense." He reminded, as he turned her arm slightly so he could try to stop her elbow from bleeding once more. Her left arm was proving to be a bigger hassle considering there was even more skin missing from it. He could only assume that, just like with his, she had landed on her left arm first and forced it take the brute of that initial landing and all the weight that followed behind it. It wasn't bleeding heavily like before, but... it hadn't stopped bleeding either. "I made an attempt to kill you- and I would had if you hadn't pulled the trigger. That's it. Case closed."

She didn't immediately respond and he had a feeling she was quietly fuming to herself.

He had to admit that he hadn't necessarily been expecting an apology from her. She did what she had to do to survive and he couldn't blame her for that. If anything, he should've been thankful that she went with a harmless shot rather than a life-threatening one. He could deal with a little shoulder pain if it meant that she was still alive.

"I could've at least stayed behind to make sure you were okay."

Her tone hinted that she was still angry, but had admitted defeat with the discussion for now.

"Well yeah, sure, but I'm not exactly helpless." Sebastian replied. "Let's just drop it, okay? We're both here now, we're both alive and that should be the only thing that matters."

She only nodded in response.

He quickly finished up her arm to the best of his ability and wrapped it up just the same- and tried not to comment on how strange she looked with the bandages now. With the serious injuries out of the way, he tried to figure out and focus on whatever was left. She had been a mess of blood before, but with all of it cleaned up, it was a little harder to locate where the bleeding had been coming from. Luckily, she had managed to find the gash on her head and remarked that she had hit a slab of concrete on the way out, which had torn some of her scalp off- the most they could do was clean it and hope for the best.

The back of her shirt was bloody and torn, and it didn't take long to realize that she had scraped the back of her shoulders to hell just the same as her arms. And while the damages wasn't necessarily to the extent of her arms, it was still pretty obvious that the injuries needed to be taken care of as soon as possible.

She had turned her chair around so she could prop herself against the back of it while he tried to clean her skinned shoulder as best he could. In order to do so though, she had to unbutton the front of her shirt just enough to slip her arm out to make the process easier.

She had offered to go shirtless for a short while so he could get her shoulders done in one go, but he had quickly shot the idea down.

It would be far less awkward to just clean one shoulder at a time.

"How'd you get so good at first aid anyways?" Kidman asked, as she briefly fiddled with the bandage on her arm to distract herself from the lingering pain in her shoulder. For the most part, her body had stopped throbbing every time she moved and had dulled down to a brief ache instead. Her ribs were still sensitive though and she had to keep herself confined to one position to keep from jostling them around. "I uh... I figured that was more of Joseph's thing."

Sebastian briefly glanced up at the question before he went back to tending to her left shoulder. He had a feeling she was just making conversation to pass the time and to distract herself from the occasional pain- and he couldn't blame her for that. The silence in this place was eerie and something about it still felt off. "I'm a Detective, my wife was an Investigator and I had a five year-old daughter, believe me... you learn on the go."

She didn't say anything in response, but the brief tension that pulled across her back told him what he needed to know.

"But you're right, this is something more suited for Joseph to do." He continued. "Unfortunately, you're stuck with me."

"Well, I feel more sorry for you, because you're going to be stuck with me." she replied, managing to force out a light chuckle that didn't hurt her chest.

That was right... he didn't necessarily finish taking care of the rest of his injuries. He supposed he really needed to get back to them when he could. Or at least have her take care of the ones he couldn't see. He didn't have anything serious apparently, or else he would've been well aware of it by now, but... the least he could do was make sure he didn't die from an infection.

"Detectives."

They both looked up as Tatiana stepped into the room.

"You have another guest."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I messed up editing, so now it's going to be four chapters instead of three- and by messed up, I mean this part ended up being longer than I intended and I had to cut the original chapter in half.

For a moment he questioned what Tatiana had said and briefly shot a glance towards Kidman, who only returned the look.

Part of him hoped he knew who it was.

But the other part tried to keep realistic and remember what this world was capable of.

There was no way it would cut them a break this easily.

Kidman slipped her arm back into her shirt and was in the midst of hastily re-buttoning it when she turned back towards him; her expression said pretty much everything despite the silence. "... Could it?"

Her question sounded incomplete, like the rest of it had been worded over in her head rather than out loud, but he knew what she was asking. And he was certain they both wanted the same answer to it, but if that wasn't the case... then that meant that something else had found its way into here. And he wasn't entirely sure if they were prepared to handle anything at this point in time.

In fact, he knew they weren't.

"I would suggest you hurry." Tatiana spoke as she continued to stand in the doorway. "He sounded like he was in bad shape."

Both he and Kidman pushed themselves to their feet so quickly that the chairs they were in toppled backwards and clattered against the ground. They went separately around the table, but they both ended up pushing past the nurse and heading through the rest of the office at about the same time. Her limp no longer seemed to bother her- or maybe she was just forcing herself not to focus on it.

He pushed open the lobby door... and immediately stopped.

The lobby walls were decorated with long blood trails that looked like they had been smeared by hand.

Some of them looked almost casual, as though someone had just been running their hand along the wall... But others were violent, like someone had been clawing at them in a desperate attempt to cling to something. Some of the partial, bloody hand prints were clean enough that every line could be seen on the palm impression. Despite having been in the lobby just minutes before, the blood looked fresh- as though someone had just recently gone through and done it. But... they certainly would've heard something like this going on.

The sight of the mess stilled him to the core and he instinctively reached for his gun- only to remember once more he had left it behind.

Kidman took an audible breath and briefly cursed as she reached for her gun as well, only to curse again when she realized it was missing.

He didn't even see or notice that she had removed her holster.

This place, very rarely, reflected any kind of... damage or had some odd effect wash over it like this; and the few times it had before, things didn't end well. Even now, the sight of it made his skin crawl and made him regret that they had both rushed out here without some kind of protection on them.

Unless, of course, this was like how that blood trail had appeared for Kidman...

He heard the sound of one of the room doors opening again and held his breath.

There were no curse words or mumbled sentences this time- not like it had been with Kidman before.

Just heavy coughing.

It was strange to consider that he moved towards the sound regardless, and stepped out from behind the desk once more, before he stepped into the open doorway looking down the corridor. He heard her follow closely after him, as though still not quite convinced that it wasn't some kind of Haunted or the like standing down there, waiting for them.

They were both still as they watched a door at the end of the corridor slowly inch open, before a hand reached forward to quicken the action.

The sight of a black-clad figure stepping out of the room drew a startled breath out of both of them.

Joseph...

The man had partly shouldered the door open, as though using it for momentary balance, before he stopped just outside of the doorway. He didn't even look at them, he probably didn't even notice them, and instead seemed more focused on something else for the time being; the way he was partly hunched forward told him that it was more than likely pain that kept him distracted. His left hand briefly brushed against his wounded side before it moved to his right shoulder instead, partly gripping it.

Sebastian didn't waste much time as he quickly started down the corridor towards the other man, still in a partial state of disbelief. He half-expected something to go wrong right about now just to fuck with them- just to teach them a lesson about getting comfortable in one place for too long.

But nothing did. Thankfully.

"Joseph."

Kidman was the first one to call his attention to them- although it'd be hard for him not to hear the clicking of her heels in the narrow hallway.

He didn't seem to react to the call of his name, but quickly held up his hand when they drew close- wincing as he did so.

He was in about as bad of shape as they were.

His arms were cut open and bloodied from the debris of the crash; there was even a minor blood smear on the door from where he had pressed his left arm against it. The back of his right shoulder, which he still held on to, had blood stained completely through his shirt and an opened tear suggested further injury. The skin from his cheek down to his jaw had been scraped raw on the left side of his face, leaving a mess of stripped skin and blood to drip down his neck. And while those injuries were nothing to ignore, it was hard to focus on them when there was an obvious, dark stain spreading across his vest.

He was incredibly pale and, at this point, he was almost certain that the adrenaline was the only thing keeping him conscious.

"I'm fine, I... I'm fine." Joseph assured, although the break in his voice gave it away. "Just... don't touch me right now."

The pain read easily in his voice and Sebastian had to stop himself from reaching out anyways.

Kidman had to do the same.

"You're saying one thing, but... I'm seeing the exact opposite." Sebastian replied.

Joseph gave a brief chuckle and seemingly forced himself to stand a little straighter. "Good, because I feel exactly how I look right now." he answered, as he slowly moved his hand to his glasses and momentarily removed them; making it easier to notice the slight haze in his dark eyes. He checked over the damages, which included a completely shattered lens, before he gave a tired sigh and slipped them back on. He only briefly looked around at his surroundings afterwards. "... What is this place?"

"It's hard to explain." He started, already inching his way closer to the man; he knew he wasn't going to last long on his feet.

And he was right.

He managed to step forward and catch Joseph when it seemed like he was going to pass out. It was difficult to find a place to put his hands where he wouldn't inadvertently hurt the man, but he managed to catch him around his left side; slipping his right arm over his shoulder as he pulled his partner towards him in the same motion. He felt Joseph lean heavily against him, despite his earlier remark, but heard him bite back a pained noise as he unfortunately brushed his hand over his injured shoulder.

"It's dislocated." Joseph answered, through gritted teeth, as though knowing he was about to ask.

Sebastian silently cursed to himself and tried to be more mindful of the injury; the pain must've been enough to jerk him back into being conscious.

"It's an easy fix." Kidman started, as she stepped forward and briefly rested her hand on his arm- as though for a substitute because she didn't want to harm Joseph the same way he had. "At least... if you know what you're doing."

"Do you know what you're doing?" Sebastian asked- not wanting to admit he had almost forgotten about her.

"Don't ask, but yes, I do." she replied, before she turned her attention back to Joseph; she seemed to hesitate slightly before she reached forward and gently brushed her hand against his bruising jaw. And it was hard to ignore the genuine look of concern that came over her. "You look half-dead, but... I'm glad to see you're alright. We were worried about you."

"You're one to talk." Joseph remarked, drawing a short chuckle from her. "... Are you two alright?"

"We've all been better." Sebastian answered, watching as Kidman gave an agreeing nod. They were somewhat fucked up, but... they were alive at least. He heard Joseph groan again and felt his fingers briefly dig into his back as a heavy shudder tore through him. He could hear him almost struggling to breathe at this point- his injuries were only getting worse the longer they stood here. "Come on, you definitely need to lie back down and we need to get that bullet wound of yours properly patched up this time."

Easier said than done.

There was no objection as he helped his partner down the corridor and walked him into his room instead; it didn't really seem to matter in the long run considering all of the rooms were the same, but... he just felt more comfortable having Joseph here. He carefully set him down on the edge of the bed and tried to ignore another groan that had escaped him; his hand instinctively went to his side this time. "Christ..." Sebastian started, barely getting another word out before he felt Kidman brush him aside.

"We do need to get that bullet wound taken care of, but believe me, I wouldn't recommend us doing anything before I pop his shoulder back into place." she started, as she took his place and already began to unbutton Joseph's vest as she briefly knelt down on one knee. "These things are incredibly uncomfortable and painful- not to mention, the injury will only get worse the longer the joint remains out of socket, so we need to deal with this first."

He didn't know why she felt the need to explain this to him. Maybe she felt that, when compared to a bullet wound, a dislocated shoulder would be hard to argue as being the priority of the two. And he could only assume her knowledge of that had to have come from personal experience. Either way, he stepped back and let her do what she needed to do- trusting her judgement on the matter. After all, based on Joseph's reaction, it had to have been hurting like hell.

"And before you say anything, I have to do this to figure out which direction the joint pushed out from." Kidman continued, as she carefully slipped his black vest off of his shoulders- and when she had done so, she folded it and tossed it aside. "It'll also be easier to roll it back into the socket without the constriction from the sleeve."

She was either talking out loud to explain it to Joseph or to convince herself that she knew what she was doing.

At this point, he wasn't even sure if the man was listening to her or not.

"You sure about that?" Sebastian asked. "Because... this doesn't seem like the first time you've done this."

"Dislocated shoulders are more common than you think." she replied, as she moved on to his work shirt, while Joseph had already managed to loosen and remove his tie.

"I wasn't talking about that."

She didn't reply.

And, suddenly, he didn't want to know.

"Look, just focus on fixing his shoulder." Sebastian restarted as he stepped back. "I'll grab the supplies we were using before so we can try to stop the bleeding as soon as you're done."

Kidman nodded and briefly glanced back to him. "There are some more of those towels in the the top drawer of the medicine cabinet, you should grab some; we'll need them. I should have this shoulder back in place before you get back."

"Just don't rush it, okay?"

Sebastian stepped out of the small room and headed towards the back office once more. He needed some time to himself anyways to get his thoughts together and calm down for a few seconds. The entire time he had been here had been spent worrying and panicking over every little thing it felt like... and just this once, things worked out for the better; for once, things didn't go from bad to worse when he expected them to. They really could've gotten screwed over just now, and even with Kidman before, so he was having a hard time accepting that they hadn't- or, at least, not yet.

He wouldn't go so far as to rule it out- he wasn't that comfortable with it.

For now though, he needed to focus on what was in front of him and make sure the two of them could pull through this. They would be okay for now... They had to be.

And if not, then he had to do whatever he could to make sure they'd get out of this.

His hands were shaking; he hadn't really realized just how badly he had been affected by all of this. It felt like too much had happened at one time, all in connecting succession to one another. First, it was the Heresy, then the ambush, and then Joseph getting shot, followed by the second ambush and then the hotel... And then waking up in this place not knowing a damn thing about what had happened to the other two. And then slowly being reunited with them with nearly no strings attached.

Anymore surprises and he was going to have a damn heart attack.

Giving out an exhausted sigh, he ran his fingers through his hair before he picked up the mess of medical supplies from the table and took them back with him; he made sure to stop by the medical cabinet as well and grab some of the small, hand towels.

On the return trip, he stopped just long enough to notice that the lobby walls were clean again- there was no sign of blood or... anything on them now. And he had to force himself not to think on it. It wasn't worth his time and, quite frankly, he didn't give a shit.

Stepping back into the hospice room, he watched as Joseph carefully rolled his shoulder in place- hinting that the joint had been properly relocated now. Although the injury that marred the back of it seemed to be giving him some trouble.

"Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be a pinched artery or any kind of ligament tearing from what I can tell." Kidman started, as she kept her hands on his shoulder while he moved it. "We're lucky with that."

"Bad experience?" Sebastian questioned.

"Not important." was all she replied.

She really knew how to cut down his need to question things.

Setting the supplies down on the nearby desk, he watched as she stepped back, seemingly content with her work for the time being, before he turned his attention back to his partner. He had half a mind to ask if he was feeling better with his shoulder back in place, but... decided against it; a relocated shoulder was probably great to have again, but he still had a bullet rip through his body. He was breathing a little heavier now, more than likely the shoulder procedure had wiped out most of his remaining energy and strength, but he still managed to finish slipping out of his half-discarded work shirt; which only revealed another white, short-sleeve one underneath it. "How many shirts are you wearing?" Sebastian asked.

Despite looking like he was on the verge of passing out, Joseph offered a brief chuckle as he slowly rolled up the remaining shirt to reveal the blood-soaked bandage, which had been partly torn off in the wreck. "If you knew anything about etiquette, which I know you don't, you would know that you're supposed to wear a secondary shirt with white."

He wasn't surprised.

"You should take note then, Kidman." Sebastian remarked instead.

The look she shot him practically spelt death.

"The one time I don't..." she retorted, but decided not to finish her sentence.

It wasn't like he could really harp on her for it- he sure as hell wasn't wearing one either.

"Okay... let me just warn you, this isn't going to be pretty." Joseph started, as he kept one hand on the barely remaining bandage before he slowly began to peel it off. "And there's a good chance I'm going to lose consciousness with this."

He had a feeling that it wasn't so much a warning, as it was him blatantly telling them what was going to happen. But, before he could do much of anything, the other man quickly tore the front portion of the bandage off, revealing only a stream of blood that masked where the bullet had actually gone through. It was bleeding worse than it had been before- no doubt the injury itself had not only been ripped back open, but had been further torn open in the crash. Joseph hardly seemed phased by the blood pouring out of him.

"Fuck." Sebastian muttered, as he briefly turned to the supplies he had set aside earlier and grabbed one of the towels he had collected- thankful now that Kidman had mentioned them. Quickly folding it, he waited until Joseph had completely removed the ruined bandages before he moved to press the small towel against his back; covering where the bullet had blown out an exit wound. He heard him curse briefly at the contact and felt his fingers dig into his arm as he pressed harder against the injury, hoping to slow down the blood loss. He could only imagine how much blood he had already lost within the past hour- and he was amazed he was still conscious. It was a terrifying thought, one of which he had to suppress for the time being. "Okay, alright, keep this here and lie back on it; we're not going to get anywhere with these injuries until we get the bleeding under control."

He felt Joseph nod against his shoulder and waited for him to move one hand over the towel, before he had Kidman hand him a second one, which he quickly pressed against his abdomen. There was already blood soaking quickly through it as the man slowly pushed himself back across the bed before he eased himself down- groaning briefly as he did so. He moved with him and moved to sit himself on the edge of the mattress, keeping his hand steadily pressed over the entry wound. "Alright, this next part is going to fucking hurt."

"Trust me, it can't get any worse."

Shit. Joseph had gotten shot and survived a wreck well within ten minutes of each other... there was no doubt he was already in an unbearable amount of pain. The tension in his features and the visible shaking of his hands easily gave that part away. Still, he figured it was worth it to give him a heads up.

Holding his own breath, Sebastian pressed down hard on the injury and tried to ignore how his entire body visibly winced in reaction and how he bit back another pained response. Leather fingers tightly clenched together, but... he didn't say a thing. He kept a steady sense of pressure on it and counted down the seconds it took for his partner to gradually, somewhat relax under the heavy touch as the pain slowly began to drop in intensity; he was still breathing hard and it sounded like he could barely catch his breath.

He looked up as Kidman finally stepped forward once the ordeal was over with, and watched as she eased herself onto the edge of the bed closer to the headboard, somewhat facing him. Her face was firm, but the slight lack of color told him that they were all suffering from this experience. She moved to take one of Joseph's slightly unclenched hands and carefully covered it with her own. He watched as the man briefly squeezed her hand in return, somehow proving that he hadn't quite passed out like he had thought.

Christ, how was he still hanging on to consciousness?

And he waited until the gasped breathing slowly eased down into somewhat regular breaths.

"Okay... what's the worse-case scenario?" Sebastian asked, figuring that, if Joseph was going to be conscious for awhile, it'd be worth it to try and distract him- even if he was trying to do so with a fairly shitty question. But, this question would make his partner think- it would take his focus off of the pain for just a short while, and that was better than nothing.

And Joseph seemed to take a few moments to consider the answer- and he knew the man was thinking based on how he briefly moved his fingers against the bed; it was like he was counting down through a list, organizing his thoughts on a mental notepad. But he was also sure part of the delay was used to steady his breathing and recompose himself before he spoke.

"Worse case... internal bleeding, shock and then death." Joseph simply answered.

"Not really an inspiring answer." Kidman remarked.

Joseph managed a slight shrug. "After a crash like that, we're all more than likely suffering from a degree of internal bleeding." he added. "Which... could prove to be problematic down the line." he paused briefly to catch his breath, before he continued. "At the very least, if there was bleeding going on inside of your brain, it would've already been evident by now- so at least you have that."

"... Comforting." Sebastian replied, catching the brief shake of the head from Kidman. "What about best-case scenario?"

"There is no best-case."

He stilled briefly at the answer, but tried not to let it show.

After all... it wasn't like Joseph was lying. What else was there for them to do in the aftermath of this? Of course, once they got out of here, they would continue to search for a way out of this hell- they would continue to search for a way to get to Beacon, but... How much harder would that be to do now? They couldn't make a complete person between the three of them, and the gunshot wound would slow him down...

And the bleeding wasn't stopping.

There was already blood slowly staining the sheets underneath him from the exit wound.

"If anything... it could've been worse." Joseph offered, as though knowing that his answer hadn't gone over well. "High velocity gun, no secondary damages... the bullet went clean through. It could've gone in and bounced around, hit a few vital organs and... I would've been dead in minutes. It could've not exited and heighten the risk of lead poisoning- or could've gotten lodged in my spine." he stopped once more and briefly moved his free hand to cover the one Sebastian had over his abdomen. "... We could've all died in that crash."

Kidman sighed and moved to rest one hand against his chest, feeling it shudder with every breath underneath her. "There is no best-case in this situation, just... better cases."

"Exactly."

Joseph was right... they all could've died in that crash or, even worse, one of them died or two of them died and left just one person behind to continue forward. It seemed like a sick twist of fate that they had all survived in the first place, that they had all seemingly jumped out at the right time- just barely avoiding death. He was certain Ruvik had enjoyed the show- and part of him was almost convinced that the reason they were alive was because Ruvik hadn't intended on killing them then. This was probably the most entertainment he had gotten in years... and he was going to enjoy them for as long as he could.

"Perhaps I can be of some assistance, Detectives."

The voice caught him by surprised and Sebastian turned enough to see Tatiana standing in the doorway, watching them. And it had only occurred to him then that... she wasn't in the office when he had gone back to get the medical supplies; in fact, she hadn't been anywhere in sight this whole time- not since she told them about Joseph's arrival. So... where did she come from? And more importantly, where the hell did she go?

"After all, I can't have you two disturbing our newest patient."

"You know... I didn't know where this was before, but... now I do." Joseph briefly remarked. "... It just looks different now."

Kidman frowned briefly, as though slightly uncomfortable with the woman's sudden reappearance. "What are you going to do?"

Tatiana gave a light shrug. "I'll have to examine the patient first and determine treatment based on my assessment. I assure you, I won't keep him long, and he'll be in good hands."

The woman always seemed to be around if there was a reason for her to- and this instance, he felt like the nurse had already made her decision on why she needed to be here. Not that it was that difficult to see. And yet... he was reluctant to give the nurse control, even though he had this feeling that told him not to object to her decision. But he also knew that she had far more medical expertise than they did, and... it wasn't like she was against them. She had helped both him and Kidman with their injuries, so it only seemed natural for her to be here to help Joseph now.

He knew he would be in better hands, but...

He didn't really have the power to make the decision here.

"Just go, would you? I'll be fine." Joseph assured. "... She's not going to kill me."

Although Tatiana may kill them if they didn't abide by her rules.

Sebastian sighed and reluctantly admitted that this was the best course of action. "Fine." he started, squeezing Joseph's hand briefly before he pushed himself to his feet. "Just... hang in there, alright?"

"I've made it this far, haven't I?" he replied. "At best, an infection will kill me."

"Don't act like that's out of the running." Kidman spoke, turning briefly to cup her hand against his jaw as she slowly placed his hand back at his side. "You'll get through this... just be careful with your shoulder, alright?"

"I know I wasn't exactly optimistic before, but... this isn't my deathbed." Joseph reminded, managing a weak chuckle as he gently pushed her away. "I'm serious, go."

And it took a lot of his strength to let go of his hand and force himself to walk out of the room.

Sebastian felt Tatiana briefly brush her hand against his arm when he passed her and paused just slightly at the gesture.

"Don't worry Detective, I'll take care of him."

Somehow, he did find some comfort in her words this time.

But, after stepping out into the hallway and hearing her close the door behind him... he was beginning to regret the decision.

"He'll be fine." Kidman assured him, as she moved one hand to rest on his arm before she gave a comforting squeeze. He could tell she was just as nervous about the situation, but she had a better handle on keeping it pushed down and bottled up for now. "Give him time to get his injuries taken care of and time to rest... he'll bounce back."


	4. Chapter 4

He was on the verge of nodding off when he heard the sound of a door opening.

He pushed himself from the front desk to try and at least appear more focused, before he looked up to see Kidman stepping into the lobby. She walked with a more pronounced limp this time and kept one hand on her right thigh as she moved, grimacing slightly with every movement. It was pretty easy to tell that whatever had injured her leg in the first place had done a good amount of damage- enough to be worried about.

With Tatiana busy assisting Joseph, and giving them no other option but to wait, the two of them tried to focus on taking care of the rest of their injuries to pass the time. Most of his were surface injuries or raw bruises that couldn't be helped. Meanwhile her leg injury had started to act up again- mostly because they never got around to taking care of in the first place. So, given no other option, she locked herself up in her previous room to get it over with and had been in there for... twenty minutes at most maybe.

"That bad?" Sebastian asked.

"It was a piece of glass from the window I jumped from." she answered as she slowly walked over to where he had taken Tatiana's seat. She motioned for him to stay when he offered her the chair and, instead, used one of the support bars on the stool to hoist herself up onto the desk; she was very careful not to put too much pressure on her bandaged hands during the motion. "It was still embedded in there too, so I had to cut it out." she continued, sliding herself further back to make herself more comfortable. "If it had been half an inch deeper, I'd be dead right now."

"Lucky jump."

She gave a brief shrug in response and continued to keep one hand over the patched up injury. "Nothing more than another bump like the rest of them."

Why did she feel inclined to use that as an answer or response for everything?

"Are you doing any better?"

Sebastian gave a short sigh and carefully sat back. "Nothing different, although the feeling of impending death has worn off."

"Improvement." Kidman reminded, as she moved some of Tatiana's papers around before she leaned back to peer down the other corridor. Her expression didn't say much, but then again, it didn't really have to. "So... all we can do is wait, huh?"

"Unfortunately." he nodded. "And I have no clue how long she's already been in there- not like time would really matter I guess."

"Well, I think we would've been worried if she had walked in and then walked back out five minutes later." she replied as she pulled herself back forward. "She worked in a hospital apparently... so I'm sure she's seen worse cases."

He had no doubts about that- but it was that statement about worse cases that he was worried about. The woman, as many times as he had seen her, always carried the same, emotionally dead expression. It never changed, no matter what happened in this hospital world. And expressions like that didn't just occur out of nowhere either; it was always the result of something, like something traumatic or a self-defense thing.

So, she had either truly seen the worst of the worst.

Or, she had stunted her emotions in order to protect herself from the constant exposure to something horrific over time.

Or maybe there was third option he was missing, but either way, none of them seemed all that promising.

"I'm sure she has, but... that's if we're going off the assumption that she's real." Sebastian started.

Kidman shot him a brief questioning look. "What do you mean?"

He knew he was going to come off sounding paranoid, but this was something that had been bugging him for quite some time now. "I've only seen her here, in this place; and wherever the hell this place is, it doesn't seem to be connected to the other world." he answered. "So, if she's like us, like someone who got trapped in here, then she would be getting moved all over this world. Instead, it seems like she's stuck in here. And it's like she's seeing something in this world that we can't- like this entire world is completely different to her-"

"Okay, let's just... not think about it." she interrupted, as she briefly held up one hand to stop him. "My head hurts enough as it is. I don't want to get involved with something that's only going to make it worse."

"So you admit that she doesn't exactly fit in."

Kidman paused for a short moment before she let loose a defeated sigh. "I'm admitting that you bring up some good points... but that's all I'm admitting to." she replied, before she carefully brushed her fingers through her dark hair. "Can't you find something else to preoccupy yourself with?"

"No."

He swore he saw her roll her eyes at him.

She leaned back once more, and nearly too far this time, when they heard the sound of a second door opening. He pushed himself to his feet and offered a hand to help pull her back forward as the dark-haired nurse stepped out.

"Detectives." Tatiana called as she gently pulled the door partly closed behind her. She already seemed to know where they were and quietly stepped into the lobby with them; her hands brushing themselves off on her white skirt. "Your partner is resting well, you may see him if you wish."

Thank God.

"How is he?" Sebastian asked, as he helped Kidman off of the desk and carefully set her on her feet- hoping to avoid further stress with her leg injury. It felt like his heart was in his throat for some reason and he couldn't push the feeling down.

"He's doing fine." Tatiana nodded. "He only needed a few stitches and some minor first aid- he was quite the patient though, very well-mannered."

He wasn't surprised.

"Well, he's part Canadian." he started, before he felt Kidman lightly elbow him in the side.

Tatiana stepped out of their way and allowed them to pass her by as she headed back to her desk.

He pushed the room door open and held it for Kidman as he stepped in, feeling a mixture of nerves and anxiety catching up to him. The first thing he noticed was that Joseph was asleep for the time being- or unconscious from the pain, either or. His thin shirt had been pulled back down to conceal where Tatiana had stitched up and re-bandaged the bullet wound- which, thankfully, would stop the external bleeding for now. Internal bleeding would be a whole new issue though, but that was something that they just couldn't focus on right now. And hopefully they would be out of this place completely before any possible complications from it could set in.

On a better note though, the open cuts on his arms looked as though they had been taken care of as well; it was probably for the best that Tatiana had decided to handle all of his injuries instead.

He was still pale and breathing a little hard, but... he had a better chance of recovering in this shape. At least, he could manage to fight for a little longer now.

His work shirt, vest and tie had been neatly folded together and placed on the nearby desk. For some odd reason, Tatiana had removed his gloves as well, exposing his heavily-bruised palms, and had set them aside with the rest of his uniform.

For now, he seemed to be at ease.

"He's still alive." Kidman remarked, as she briefly skimmed her fingers against his bruised hand before she moved to brush aside his dark bangs that had come loose. "He's got a bit of a fever though, but he'll manage."

"Look, he's already been shot and went through a hell of a crash- and you had to relocate his shoulder." Sebastian started as he grabbed the chair from the desk and set it closer to the bed. "I think he'll manage a fever just fine." he assured as he passed her by and stepped out of the room to grab another chair from one of the vacant rooms. He tried to ignore the fact that Tatiana was no longer at her desk where they had last seen her; although her nail filer was there to confirm that she had, in fact, recently been present.

"You ever have a fever reach the triple digits before?" she asked, when he returned- having already seated herself in the first chair.

He shook his head as he set the second chair down and took a seat, knowing well he didn't want to consider her question right now. "Don't you have something else to preoccupy yourself with?"

"Oh, plenty, but this is more fun."

The sarcasm in her voice was not difficult to pick up on.

He gave a brief sigh and watched as she seemed to switch her gaze between the two of them, still holding a small look of concern. For a moment, it almost appeared as though she was worried... Like she knew something was going to happen outside of this place and she was no longer confident that they would survive it. He pushed the feeling aside though, knowing that it wasn't something he wanted to consider right now; he needed to keep himself focused on what was happening now rather than get caught up in what could happen later. "We'll probably end up having to stay here until he wakes up."

"Why bother leaving?" Kidman lightly humored as she leaned back in her chair and propped one leg onto the frame of the bed. She brushed her fingers through her still unruly hair and, for a moment, all one could see were the dark rings forming under her eyes. "... Actually, don't tell Tatiana, but I really fucking hate this place."

Sebastian chuckled softly with her and moved to pinch the space between his eyes as he slumped back just the same. "I do too. Fuck this place."

"For what it's worth... it's not all bad, but I'm getting real tired of it." she replied. "I usually don't stick around for this long."

That, he could agree with. "Then again, without this place, we would all be bleeding out in the middle of a wrecked hotel, so when you compare the two situations..." he started, watching as she seemed forced to give somewhat of an agreeing shrug. "... Regardless, we're going to be in a fucking mess when we get out of here."

"I can handle myself just fine." she assured, as fingers briefly toyed with a small, torn portion of her shirt. "You should just focus on how the two of you are going to get out of that hotel. Regardless, whatever way you choose, it's going to be a hell of a way down."

"You seem extremely confident for a woman who barely survived a head-on collision with the street." Sebastian remarked.

"I'm alive, aren't I?"

"Barely."

They gave into silence for a short while, and he took their previous, light conversation into heavy consideration. They did have quite the uphill battle going for them after this- not that he really thought it would be all that different from what they've already gone through. It might take them longer to get anything accomplished, but... they would certainly manage.

A few cuts and scrapes weren't going to stop them.

...

He didn't exactly remember falling asleep, but the realization of it hit when he somehow managed to startle himself awake. And he wasn't entirely sure if it had been something in his dream or if something outside of it had caused the sudden wake up. He couldn't really blame himself for sleeping though- he was utterly exhausted. With everything that had happened beforehand, and then with the crash following soon after... it had felt like he would collapse at any moment. Still, he partly had to curse at himself for it. What if something had happened? Or, what if they had woken up at the hotel instead?

They couldn't afford to drop their guard at a time like this...

He needed to be able to keep an eye on his partners.

Kidman was, thankfully, asleep just the same in her chair; he wasn't sure why he was half-expecting her to be gone.

And Joseph... was absent.

"Shit." Sebastian cursed, as he pushed himself to his feet.

Why was it that he could never keep the two of them with him for an extended period of time? It was like there was always some kind of obstacle or situation that dictated that he could only have one of them with him at all times. And even then, he usually couldn't keep one partner for all that long either.

Either way, he managed to startle Kidman awake.

She made a short gasping noise and pushed herself forward, straightening up briefly. "What is it?" she started, taking a second or two before she got to her feet- as though to make sure she wouldn't lose her balance. She looked to him for the answer before she briefly glanced towards the empty bed and found it. "... You're kidding me. We can't even catch a damn break here- of all places."

The frustration in her voice was easy to hear.

"He's got a bullet wound, he couldn't have gone far." Sebastian assured, although more so for himself. Sighing, he pushed his fingers through his hair and started out of the room. The last thing he needed was something else to worry about- especially concerning Joseph. Stepping out into the lobby, he noted that it was empty- well, with the exception of Tatiana, who had seemingly chosen to be at her desk now; she was filing her nails again.

"Ah, Detectives, you're up, that's good." Tatiana started, as she glanced up to them for a short moment before she returned to her nails. "Your partner is in the back office if you're looking for him."

"Why did you let him walk around?" Kidman asked. "You just stitched him up not even..." and she trailed briefly when it occurred to her that she had no idea how much time had actually passed since then.

Hell, they didn't even know how long they had been asleep.

"I advised him not to, but he insisted." Tatiana answered. "He was very well aware of his condition and his limits, so I was confident that he wouldn't hurt himself in any manner. Just as well, I told him to call for me if he needed any assistance."

While he wasn't surprised by the man's actions, Joseph damn well knew he had a bullet wound and had already lost a good amount of blood- and he would know that walking around was not in his best interest. At least Tatiana was around on the off chance that something did happen, so they had that to assure themselves with. Sighing, Sebastian walked around the nurse and continued on into the back office with Kidman close behind him. It was quiet, which wasn't new, but it still left him with a cold feeling that itched at his skin.

He headed towards the office in the back corner and paused briefly in the doorway, noticing Joseph looking at the partial, unfinished map of Krimson City that hung on the wall. Somehow, next to slipping out of bed and out of the room without waking them, he had also managed to completely redress himself in his uniform before doing so. And with his black vest covering the entirety of his blood-stained shirt, it almost made it easy to forget that he had been shot at all.

"Before you say anything, given the situation and current ordeals, I'm feeling better." Joseph started, not even looking back at them. He was partly leaning against the table with one hand firmly holding onto the edge of it, most likely for balance. "I got a lot of lower back pain from that bullet, and lying down for that long only made it worse. So, believe me, despite the pain from everything else, this is a relief."

"You could've at least told us." Sebastian replied.

"You were both resting, I didn't want to wake you." he remarked, before he looked over to them. "Although, do you realize how unsettling it is to wake up and have two people sitting that uncomfortably close to you?"

"We were aiming for romantic." Kidman retorted.

Sebastian snorted briefly at the unexpected remark, unsure how she managed to keep a straight face with it. "We just wanted to make sure we were close by in case anything happened."

"Nothing ever happens here." Joseph reminded. "But I understand your intentions and you had every right to be concerned, so I should be thankful for that at least." he moved slightly to lean more prominently against the table now. "How are you two feeling anyways?"

"Like I died and woke up here instead." she answered. "I'm sure we could all share that feeling though."

"Given the circumstances, at least we're okay. Nothing serious was broken and we keep waking up, so that's a good sign." Sebastian replied.

Joseph chuckled lightly and removed his glasses for a moment, once more checking over the broken lens. "You're not wrong. We're pretty lucky we survived that crash the way we did, and in the shape we did as well... Although I'm curious as to why Ruvik didn't kill us."

"He's more than likely enjoying this." Kidman shrugged, as she finally stepped into the office and elected to take the seat closest to Joseph on his right. She kept her injured leg stretched out some and continued to keep one hand over the injury. "Or maybe he did intend to kill us and we'll have an army of Haunted to battle through when we're done here."

Sebastian groaned lightly as he stepped in soon after her and walked around the table to take the seat on Joseph's left. His body still ached with the motion. "Don't say things like that, they might come true."

"With everything we've seen so far, the Haunted are the least of our problems." she reminded.

And he wished she hadn't.

"You can have your pick of the Haunted, the Boxhead, Shigyos, or another Heresy." Kidman continued.

She used to be a bit of a killjoy before... and that trait was once more rearing it's ugly head.

"I'd rather take a bullet." Sebastian remarked.

"I wouldn't recommend it." Joseph replied.

"Besides, you already have." she spoke. "That's why I didn't offer it."

He shook his head and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest- not the least bit surprised by their input. "How much longer do you figure until we can get out of here?"

A change of subject would be nice.

"It's a gamble." Joseph shrugged, as he finally turned around and pulled out the chair behind him before he sat down- doing so with some difficult it seemed. "This place doesn't necessarily have a consistent theme that we could track."

"I'll give it another hour." Kidman offered.

"And then what?"

"Then we'll just have to wait longer." she replied.

Joseph leaned forward against the table for a brief moment and kept one hand somewhat hovering over his side. If he was in any serious pain, he was doing a damn good job at pushing it down. At best, he seemed more annoyed with the back pain than anything else. "So what exactly are our plans once we get out of here?"

"We do what we can to regroup." Sebastian answered, aware that he was making it sound easier than it would be. He hadn't really given it much thought in terms of the long-run, but... he knew what they needed to do the moment they escaped from here. Regrouping would be the difficult part, but after that... well they would just have to handle things as they went along. "It'll be safer for us to get down to street level, so Kidman, you try to stay out on that general street. Don't go too far, but don't stay if there's trouble nearby- I figure with a crash like that, we'll have alerted every Haunted in a three block radius and it won't take long before they're on our asses. So, just don't do anything stupid until we catch up with you."

"I could say the same for you." Kidman reminded. "Like I said, it's not going to be easy getting out of that hotel. You may run into more problems than I will- and I can't exactly scale four stories to provide back up."

"There's two of us, we'll manage." Sebastian assured.

"That doesn't necessarily mean shit." Joseph remarked. "I mean, sure, we've survived the asylum, and somewhat survived part of the church, and then the Heresy, as well as the city up till now, but-"

"I get the point." he interrupted. "There's still a good chance we'll get hopelessly slaughtered, but until that actually happens... we'll manage."

"Don't do anything stupid." Kidman repeated.

"No promises-"

A high-pitched, grinding shriek cut him off.

Like those of overheated brakes desperately trying to catch traction on an empty road.

And it got louder until it was followed by what sounded like something violently crashing into the entire building. It heavily shook the room they were in and caused the window just outside to shatter inward in a mess of broken glass- as though something on the other side had physically hit it.

Despite the overwhelming sudden action of it all, neither of them really jumped or reacted all that much to it.

After all, they had already heard it once before.

He held his breath and waited until the brief echoes of the crash had died down.

"Well... I think we found our exit."

They stuck around just long enough to recollect their things.

As big of a relief as it was to have the downtime, and a fairly safe place to rest, they needed to keep going; there was a lot more they had to do from here on out and they couldn't risk holding it off any longer. Grabbing his holster from the table, Sebastian slipped it back on and felt reassured by its familiar weight- and even more so with heaviness of his shotgun slung over one shoulder.

Tatiana was nowhere to be found, which wasn't surprising at this point; he wasn't entirely sure why he expected the nurse to be there to see them off.

"Are you going to be okay with that leg?" Sebastian asked, watching as Kidman emerged from the lobby and headed back towards the corner office towards him. She had returned to her room for just a brief moment to collect some extra supplies and do a quick re-patch on her arm.

"Don't worry about it." she answered, somewhat walking with a steadier gait now. "It'll wear off in time."

That didn't really assure him of anything, but he was certain the woman had answered as such on purpose. Either way, if she said not to worry about it, then that meant she could handle it and he would trust her word on it. Sighing, he stepped back into the office where Joseph was still studying the broken map on the wall. "Are you almost done with that?"

"Yeah, it's just... it's kind of odd for this map to be here, so I was wondering if it's supposed to reflect the damages Ruvik's done to the city." Joseph started, before he briefly tapped one of the few, remaining pieces. "Because Beacon's on this street and everything within a ten-block radius of it is basically gone."

"Goodbye apartment." Kidman remarked.

Joseph gave the map one last look over before he finally turned away and readjusted his holster as he walked back to join them. "It just means that we're going to have to find a severe alternative route to get to it." he finished.

Despite his reluctance to return to Beacon, it was the only place left for them to go.

It wasn't exactly something they could argue.

"We'll find a way."

* * *

 

Even now, after all the times he had gone from that hospice world back into this one, or vice versa, he still wasn't entirely sure how those mirrors worked. Sometimes it was as simple as waking up next to one and other times, it was like being consumed by whatever possessed the mirror.

Either way, he woke up to the smell and taste of smoke and plaster in the air.

There was that ever-familiar ache as he forced himself to his feet and looked around at the utter wreckage. The bus itself had carved out a complete tunnel through the hotel, going easily through one side and out the other. The ceiling above them was cracked and bowed downward, threatening to buckle and collapse on top of them at any given minute. The cold breeze brought his attention to the obvious hole in the wall to his left that opened out into the city, giving off a beautifully destructive view of the ruins.

And it just made him more thankful that they had had the time to patch up and regroup beforehand.

Sebastian turned briefly at the sound of a groan and watched as Joseph slowly forced himself to his feet just the same- with a little more struggle on his part; although he quickly assured him that he was okay.

He briefly checked to make sure he still had his weapons on him before he slowly made his way over to opened portion of the hallway. Careful to mind his step around the loose edges, he peered down at the smoking wreckage of the bus on the street below. It was barely recognizable now, with the exception of the yellow paint that was slowly being burned away by the quick flames. The smell of burning rubber was almost nauseating.

If anything, he was sure as hell glad he knew for certain that Kidman had survived the crash, and that she was, in fact, alive.

A brief tremor shook the building and he quickly backed up a few steps, watching as more of the flooring broke off and tumbled into the streets below. And it only reminded him that they couldn't stay here; they had to find a way to get out.

"She'll be fine." Joseph assured, as he stepped up next to him and placed a hand on his arm. "... It's us we need to worry about."

Sebastian chuckled briefly and looked around at the utter wreckage they were standing in. "Yeah... it's gonna be a hell of a way down though."


End file.
